Biden takes two-week break as vacation time outstrips Trump, Obama, Bush
Call him the “Out of Towner.”
President Biden will wrap up a two-week vacation at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., Wednesday as one unofficial count indicates he has spent more time away from the White House than his three immediate predecessors at the same point in their terms.
The president and his family, including disgraced first son Hunter Biden, left Washington for their latest getaway on Aug. 10, spending almost a week at a $20 million mansion on South Carolina’s exclusive Kiawah Island.
As The Post reported earlier this month, the first family stayed for free at the nine-bedroom oceanfront estate owned by Democratic donor Maria Allwin, the widow of hedge fund founder James Allwin.
The president interrupted his vacation for one day to return to the White House on Aug. 16 and sign the Inflation Reduction Act.
Later that evening, he boarded Marine One for the short trip to his home in Wilmington, Del. Biden remained there until Saturday night, when he continued on to Rehoboth Beach.
It marked Biden’s 49th visit to the First State since entering the White House in January 2021 and brings the number of days he spent in Delaware to 150, according to an unofficial count by former CBS News reporter Mark Knoller — who is respected among the White House press corps for his keeping of presidential statistics.
Knoller’s tally also showed that former President Donald Trump had spent a total of 132 days between his Mar-a-Lago resort, which he visited 17 times, and his golf club in Bedminster, NJ, where he traveled 13 times.
Former President Barack Obama had taken eight vacations 19 months into his term, racking up 38 away days to Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard.
And former President George W. Bush had visited his Texas ranch 14 times, for a total of 100 days away.
The Republican National Committee slammed Biden over the weekend for taking an extended vacation at a time when Americans are struggling to pay their bills amid the highest rate of inflation in 40 years.
“How out-of-touch can Joe Biden get? Biden is spending nearly all of August on vacation while Americans are forced to cancel their summer travel because of historic inflation, high gas prices, and a recession. Biden should stop jet-setting from beach to beach and focus on fixing the crises he created,” RNC spokeswoman Emma Vaughn said in a statement on Saturday.
The Republicans also noted that Biden was absent on the first anniversary of the Taliban reconquest of Afghanistan on Aug. 15.
Biden’s 14-day break is not the longest among recent chief executives. Trump spent a stretch of 17 days away in Bedminster in his first August after becoming president, according to a count by the Washington Post.
Spokespeople for both presidents defended the getaways, noting that the pressing demands of the White House follow the commander-in-chief wherever they travel.
“The presidency is a nonstop job that chief executives can do from anywhere in the world,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told the Washington Examiner during Biden’s stay in South Carolina.
“President Biden is constantly focused on the numbers that are most important to the American people: lowering costs for families, like prescription drugs and energy, reducing the deficit to fight inflation, creating the most jobs of any year in American history, growing the membership of NATO, and passing the most significant gun reform law in almost 30 years,” he said.
After Biden returns to Washington Wednesday, his schedule calls for him to travel to suburban Montgomery County, Md., for a Democratic National Committee event.
On Friday, the president and first lady plan to head back to Delaware for the weekend.
